partner in the product. It says, "We jointly made it-we will endeavor justly to share it." When this movement represents merely a bonus to reward extra work, or when it is simply an attempt to buy the loyalty of the workers, it is foredoomed to failure. If, however, it is a genuine attempt to "do justly," if it really recognizes the partnership of the worker in the business, it is a step toward complete industrial democracy.

As the principle of partnership in the control of industry is increasingly recognized, the further vision of common ownership of the resources and equipment of industry becomes more clear. How far are the tools of industry now possessed by all whose labor created them? Would such common ownership not lead us on toward the Christian commonwealth?

A great Christian body has declared that the principle of Christian democracy leads to "the fullest possible ownership and control, both of industry and of the resources upon which industry depends." This principle is being worked out in practice. In Europe the cooperative movement in retail and wholesale merchandising, and also in production—both agricultural and manufacturing-has brought together great groups of workers who both own and manage their own business. This is industry of the people, by the people, and for the people. It eliminates the parasites, the absentee owners who toil not and do not spin, and yet draw incomes from the industrial process. It does away with the exploiters-those who contribute something to industrial management, but take out far more than the fair reward of their labor. The story of the cooperative movement proves that the teachings of Jesus will work in economic relations. But it pays its largest dividends in the coin of the spirit. It has united the workers in great bonds of service. It has made the prophetic missionaries of a new order of life, willing to forego profit and income for the sake of spreading the gospel of cooperation. Recently there died the manager of a great cooperative business with an annual turn-over of millions. He left less than $5,000 and he had never drawn more than $2,000 a year. Private, profitmaking enterprises had in vain offered him many times this

salary. Is this not the same spirit that has animated Christian ministers, doctors, and missionaries?

V

The widest application of the principle of industrial cooperation takes in the community. It leads to community ownership. Joint trade agreements may become a mere "plunderbund" to levy toll on the consumer. The alliance may assume powers which belong only to the whole community, and neutrals may have no rights left. In the recent anthracite labor controversy nobody sat around the table to represent the government of the United States. The dispute was settled by representatives of the owners and workers, and the consumers paid the bills without having any voice in the terms of settlement. When a city owns its gas works, its water works, and traction system, when a nation owns its railroads, it admits every citizen into ownership. Such industry becomes then a partnership of all the people to serve each other. It ties the people together with the bonds of common property and common labor. Just as a family is drawn together around its homestead, so the community is drawn together around its mutual enterprises. When the people have the park for their playground, a civic spirit develops which is absent when to get a glimpse of beauty they must visit the private grounds of millionaires. In spite of the terrific opposition against it, collective ownership and management is extending throughout the world.

The Christian must measure all practical proposals for collective ownership and management from the standpoint of the social principles of Jesus. Does such action recognize the rights of all the people? Does it bind the people together in fraternal living? Does it throw the weight of economic pressure on the side of moral development, rather than against it? By such tests must the citizen of tomorrow decide the business of the nation. It may be that the Orient, with its long development of communal action, will help the world to solve this common problem. The principles of economic

cooperation involved in the teachings of Jesus must finally be applied to the relations between nations and races. The dragon's teeth of future world conflict are buried in the soil of economic relations between the white and yellow races. In South Africa a cultured people holds in leash a primitive people who yearn for a larger life. Economic cooperation, anything approaching industrial democracy, seems impossible. Imagine for a moment the blacks of the diamond mines in Kimberley, or in the gold mines on the Rand, sharing the administration of these vast wealth-producing enterprises! The task of satisfying the demands of Christianity will be long and difficult, but if the white race is to follow Jesus to the end of the road, it cannot hold other races in economic subjection.

The whole story of social evolution is a record of the increase of cooperative capacity. Today mankind has power to organize life on a cooperative basis as never before. The Christian whose faith hesitates before Jesus' teaching concerning democracy has turned his back upon the facts of history and life.

The motive of life has to be changed for many people. The world has taught that the strong have a right to the rewards of their strength; it has sneered at the call to cooperative service as the gospel of inefficiency and failure. The question is now, what will the strong do? Will Jesus' followers take the same attitude in industry that they take when they go into settlements and foreign missions, into medicine and the ministry? Will they enter the world of moneymaking, not for themselves or their families, but to help all the people to transfer industry from the basis of struggle to the basis of brotherhood?

SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND ACTION

I. Industrial Unrest

1. Is there industrial unrest in our community? If not,

what has prevented it? If present, what are the main causes?

2. What is labor really striving to secure? What are the objects of the local labor and radical groups?

II. Industrial Relationship

I. To what extent is industrial unrest justified in our community?

2. In our own community, or in an industrial community which we know, what is the attitude of the employer toward the industrial worker?

3. Where is the relationship between employer and employe thoroughly commercialized? If so, how does it differ from the relations between master and slave?

4. How do industrial relations differ from ordinary human relations? Have any employers in our community subordinated profit to human values? What is the secret of their attitude? What human values should employers recognize?

5. How does the relationship between the farmer and his hired hand differ from the relations between the industrial employer and his machine operator?

6. Study the situation in a Japanese or South American community, where modern industry has recently developed. How does the situation differ from previous industrial conditions? From the problem of industrial relations in this country?

7. How tense is the relationship between employer and employe? How great a national problem is this?

III. Possible Solutions.

1. What is meant by industrial democracy? To what extent do you believe that industrial democracy is really the goal of the labor movement? How does this differ from the ordinary idea of its purpose?

2.

What are the values and the limitations of welfare

work? Is it a step towards, or a hindrance to industrial democracy?

3. In what ways does unionism benefit the workers?

4. Does collective bargaining tend to increase or decrease the tension of relationship between employer and employe? To what extent does it lead the way to full industrial democracy?

5. To what extent does profit-sharing identify the interest of employer and employe? When does it tend toward industrial democracy? When does it lead away from it?

6. What is cooperative ownership of industry? To what extent has labor a right to share in the ownership and control of the equipment and resources of industry? How far does community ownership of public utilities demonstrate the feasibility of industrial democracy?

IV. Christianity and Industrial Democracy

I.

How far will the achievement of industrial democracy lead toward the Christian commonwealth?